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Per Capita Personal Income (PCPI)

The U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) produces Per Capita Personal Income (PCPI) estimates on an annual basis for every region, state, metropolitan statistical area and county in the United States. Data for all states can be found on BEA's Regional Economic Accounts page.

The BEA PCPI data has been reorganized (in Microsoft Excel format) to provide:

What is Per Capita Personal Income?

Here is an explanation of Per Capita Personal Income.

Per Capita Personal Income
Region 2004 2008 2009 Nominal Change
2008 - 2009		 Nominal Change
2004 - 2009
United States $33,881 $40,674 $39,635 -2.6% 17.0%
Wisconsin $32,715 $37,905 $37,373 -1.4% 14.2%
U.S. Metro $35,440 $42,430 $41,223 -2.8% 16.3%
WI Metro $34,395 $39,789 $39,091 -1.8% 13.7%
U.S. Non-metro $26,075 $31,646 $31,402 -0.8% 20.4%
WI Non-Metro $28,277 $32,830 $32,706 -0.4% 15.7%

County, WDA, and Metro PCPI Rakings

County, Regional, and Metro Historical Comparisons

Maps

Per Capita Personal Income (PCPI) Explanation

Many readers think of personal income as wages earned from jobs. Wages are actually only one portion of total income, although on average they are a significant majority. Personal income is the sum of net earnings*, rental income, personal dividend income, personal interest income, and personal current transfer (government) receipts.

Population is the denominator ("per capita", or per person). As one tends to view PCPI for its quantitative significance, there are underlying characteristics that can impact the level or change in PCPI and these characteristics are not always solely economic. For example, two counties with similar population levels, similar industry and occupational compositions and similar employment rates could show sizable differences in PCPI if one of the counties has a significantly higher percentage of young children. How is this possible? These children seldom report significant wages, but they are nevertheless part of the population component factored into PCPI. Another example is that a county's employers may pay lower than average wages yet the county could have a surprisingly high PCPI because a significant number of its residents commute to work in nearby, higher-paying counties. These are simplified examples that show how qualitative, demographic issues can affect this measure of economic health.

Per Capita Personal income in metropolitan areas is generally higher than PCPI in non-metro areas, and Wisconsin is proportionally less metropolitan than the United States as a whole.  Therefore, we should expect PCPI in Wisconsin to be lower than the national average.  Additionally, we can expect Wisconsin metro areas to  have lower PCPI than the national average for because Wisconsin metro areas are generally smaller than the average metro area found across the nation.

*Net earnings is earnings by place of work (the sum of wage and salary disbursements (payrolls), supplements to wages and salaries, and proprietors' income) less government contributions for social insurance, plus an adjustment to convert earnings by place of work to a place-of-residence basis. Personal income is measured before the deduction of personal income taxes and other personal taxes and is reported in current dollars (no adjustment is made for price changes). Bureau of Economic Analysis